TORONTO — The number of homes sold in Toronto and the surrounding area fell in 2018, along with the number of new listings hitting the market, as homebuyers and sellers grappled with a new reality of higher interest rates and stricter mortgage rules.

The Toronto Real Estate Board says there were 77,426 residential transactions recorded through its Multiple Listing Service (MLS) system last year, down 16.1 per cent from 92,263 sales in 2017.

The board says the total number of new listings was also lower, pulling back 12.7 per cent to 155,823 in 2018.

Meanwhile, the average selling price for all property types in the Greater Toronto Area fell by 4.3 per cent to $787,300.

TREB, which represents more than 52,000 real estate agents across the region, says the number of sales in December fell 22.5 per cent to 3,781, down from 4,876 in the same month a year earlier.

The average sale price in December rose slightly by 2.1 per cent to $750,180 from $734,847 when compared to December 2017.